How AI is transforming

unified
communications
In this handbook:

Understanding AI in How AI is transforming unified communications

unified communications
JON ARNOLD, PRINCIPAL OF J ARNOLD & ASSOCIATES
AI applications for UC
AI is now the dominant trend in technology and is being widely applied both in the
AI challenges with UC
business and consumer worlds. When technology becomes this ubiquitous -- and so
The future of AI with UC quickly -- we all must understand how it will affect our lives.

AI, however, is complex, and rather than trying to understand how it works, IT
decision-makers need to focus on use cases and where AI brings value.

Understanding AI in unified communications

For enterprises, unified communications (UC) is one of those leading AI use cases.
The focus needs to be on AI technology helping UC do what it does best. From the
outset, UC has always been about increased productivity and collaborative work.
Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it must also now support remote and hybrid
work.

Until recently, UC has been effectively addressing these needs without AI. But, when
considering AI, IT decision-makers are starting to see next-level possibilities for UC
across all work environments, not just in the office.

2 HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

In this handbook:
To understand why the opportunity with AI and UC is so promising, two drivers need
Understanding AI in
unified communications
to be recognized. First is the widespread adoption of UC, which accelerated during
the pandemic. Today, businesses of all sizes are deploying some form of UC.
AI applications for UC

AI challenges with UC
The future of AI with UC
Secondly, employees -- end users -- are more comfortable using UC, so adoption
should occur quickly when introducing AI-based applications. It won't take long for IT
leaders to see which AI applications are working best, both in terms of productivity
and employee experience.

3 HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

In this handbook:
Understanding AI in
unified communications
AI applications for UC
AI challenges with UC
The future of AI with UC
4 HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS
AI applications for UC
With AI evolving so quickly, new business communications tools keep coming. IT
leaders need to view this as a continuum of innovation. UC will always be a work in
progress, and AI is just another layer for its ongoing evolution. The first wave of AI
innovation for UC, which includes applications like automated transcription, real-time
translation, noise suppression, meeting summaries and biometrics, has now become
table stakes for providers.
These applications continue to provide value for collaborative work, but IT leaders
now must look ahead to the next wave with AI. Initial AI applications were mostly
about automating tasks, such as scheduling and note taking, and that speaks to how
automation is often the driver for building a business case.
AI is now able to take things a step further by not just automating tasks, but also
automating workflows. For example, automated transcription has value for making a
task better, but now, AI can act on the transcription's content by deploying virtual
assistants to manage follow-up activity, such as scheduling a new meeting or
providing customized meeting summaries for those who didn't attend the meeting.
In this handbook:
Understanding AI in
unified communications
AI applications for UC
AI challenges with UC
The future of AI with UC
Generative AI, where chatbots can generate communication on your behalf, is the
latest AI breakthrough, freeing up time for more in-person interaction. With minimal
training, these chatbots can compose emails, letters and reports that are not just
good proxies for humans doing the work, but are good enough to generate outputs
that reflect personal communication styles. As these capabilities mature, it won't be
long until virtual assistants can manage many everyday activities.

AI challenges with UC
New technologies always come with risk. Not surprisingly, AI's disruptive potential
comes with great risk and many challenges, including the following:

• Accuracy. When using voice assistants to execute instructions, there must be clear
understanding of the task to achieve the desired outcome. Otherwise, workers have
to do the work all over again themselves, defeating the purpose of using AI for
increased productivity.
• Complexity. To get beyond basic tasks related to UC, AI applications must
understand the work environment at a deeper level by understanding context, intent
and nuance. This goes well beyond basic speech recognition, where the sole
objective is to accurately capture what was said in text form. These applications of AI
only work as well as the instructions provided by humans, so employees need to
learn how to interact with AI to get the desired outcome.

5 HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

In this handbook:
• Bias. A nontechnical challenge comes from learning to trust AI applications. One
Understanding AI in example is detecting bias that can come from any number of sources. Given how
unified communications diverse today's workforce is, collaborative work can become problematic if the AI
AI applications for UC
applications use inappropriate references or incorrect assumptions. This can quickly
make for uncomfortable work environments and a difficult employee experience.
AI challenges with UC • Trust. Perhaps the biggest AI challenge is being able to trust the outputs, especially
when coming from generative AI. Often, the sources are not cited, making it difficult
The future of AI with UC to know what the output is based on, what information was considered but not used
or how complete the underlying analysis is.

The shortcomings are familiar to anyone who has used generative AI. Accuracy aside,
there can be bigger concerns, such as plagiarism, copyright violations, or fake or fraudulent
sources. As such, when using AI to do collaborative work, everyone on the team needs to
understand these challenges. Otherwise, someone will be too trusting with AI, and the
fallout could go well beyond the team.

The future of AI with UC

At the moment, the future outlook is a bit mixed, as the risks associated with AI are
coming under growing scrutiny. Ultimately, that will lead to better guardrails in the
form of regulation and best practices among enterprises. AI has evolved faster than
our ability to responsibly use it, so this scrutiny will help make everyone more
comfortable that "AI for good" will prevail.

6 HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

In this handbook:
In terms of UC, we will continue seeing more applications, especially as the
Understanding AI in
unified communications
performance of AI keeps improving:

AI applications for UC • Meeting engagement. UC services will further use AI to make meetings more
engaging as remote work becomes integral for collaborative work. Prime examples
AI challenges with UC
include AI-driven video applications that make everyone feel like they're in the room
The future of AI with UC and ensure participants are visually represented equally, regardless of location or
where they are in the meeting space.
• Mobile apps. Another aspect of remote work is the reliance of mobile devices for
collaborative work. As 5G-enabled smartphones become more common, they'll be
able to support more AI applications, helping them have an employee experience
that's totally comparable to the desktop.
• Immersive spaces for collaboration. Virtual and augmented reality applications
have yet to catch on in the workplace, but Microsoft, Meta and Apple, among others,
are touting metaverse-style workspaces. Today's employee experience is going to
cater ever more to digital natives, for whom this will feel quite comfortable.

As the demographic of digital natives comes to personify the modern workforce, AI-driven
UC will become a mix of physical and virtual work environments, where everyone will have
virtual assistants. That may not be the reality now, but it's a good indication of how AI is
changing UC, along with the essence of collaborative work.
Jon Arnold is principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent analyst providing
thought leadership and go-to-market counsel with a focus on the business-level effect
of communications technology on digital transformation.

7 HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS